Second chance christmas, p.18
Second Chance Christmas, page 18
For now, this would do. I watched as her mouth curved. She tossed her head back while grinding on my fingers. I flicked my finger across her pearl, which sent her into a frenzy. She wanted to rip off her clothes and have me take her now, but neither of us wanted to sit in jail for indecent exposure.
“R . . . Rome, I’m about to c . . . come, baby,” she squealed out while holding onto the side of my face.
I bent my head down and sucked on her lips as my hands moved like a guitarist under the blanket. “Fuck, Fay . . . Give me some tongue,” I demanded.
She shoved her entire tongue into my mouth while I continued to get her off. Her body moved every which way because it felt so pleasurable. And it wasn’t like we were discreet with what we were doing. We were lucky there wasn’t any traffic on the beach. Fay’s soft moans had turned into loud wails until her body went limp.
I took my hands out from her pants and sucked every finger before kissing her. She lay between my legs, too spent to say anything, so I kissed her lips.
“Looks like I’m the one that’s driving back,” I smirked.
Her mind, body, and soul hadn’t been taken care of, and I planned to do all that. “Yes, please,” she begged.
“Think you can handle round two?”
She nodded. “Guess I should text Marie and tell her I’m staying out again.”
“Yeah, do that.” I kissed her lips.
Fay lay in my bed, her legs wide open and ready for me. I slapped my dick against her thigh a few times before I slowly inserted it into her. She held onto my shoulders while staring into my eyes.
This wasn’t the first time we had been at it. Since we stepped into the house last night, we had been at it all night. Pia already knew what was going on, so she made sure she gave Mama melatonin so she could sleep peacefully throughout the night. The minute we made it through the door, I tossed Fay onto the bed and ripped off her clothes.
I ate her pussy in so many positions that we should have broken a record. Fay surprised me when she shoved all of me into her mouth. The way she stared into my eyes while she gobbled me down made me growl. After sexing each other until the early-morning hours, we found our way downstairs to make something to eat.
Well, Fay made us something to eat.
We had gotten so damn heated in the kitchen that we went back upstairs, ready for more. It wasn’t until five that we both decided to get some sleep. This bed was expensive, and so was the mattress. However, it never felt comfortable until I lay in it with Faith.
She held onto me as if she never wanted to let me go while I kissed her lips. When my morning alarm woke up, it woke someone else up too. So now, we were in this bed about to indulge in some more grown folk business.
I stared her in the eyes and leaned down to kiss her lips. “Fuck, Fay . . . Why you been keeping this away from me?” I groaned into her ear as I pulled out and pushed my way back in.
She wrapped her legs around me while she held my face, kissing me each time. “Better late than never, right?” She gave me another peck on my lips.
“I don’t think I can let you out of this room . . . I need this every morning now.” I continued to deliver slow yet steady strokes to her.
“You’re trying to have me walking around like a cowboy, baby. . . I’m so sore.” She kissed me again.
It was my turn to kiss her. “We gonna have to start the day soon . . . I’m gonna mis—”
“Rome Atkins! What in the world are you doing with a girl in your father’s and my bedroom?!”
I jumped off Faith and grabbed the blanket to wrap around my body. Fay fought for the sheets and covered the rest of her body. “Mama!”
Since she moved in, my mother had never come upstairs. I considered upstairs my sanctuary because she never came up here. “Get that little fast tail out of my damn bed and out of this house! A fast one like your mama, ain’t you?” She pointed at Faith.
Faith looked mortified as I gently pushed my mother out of the bedroom while having a blanket wrapped around my body like I was going to a toga party.
“Mama, enough,” I scolded her as I led her back downstairs. “Where is Pia?” I asked as if she was going to answer me.
With the way she was scratching and fighting me to get down the steps, I could tell today would be one of those days. “Your brother would never do something like this . . . Let go of me!” she hollered as I sat her down in the recliner.
“Why were you upstairs? Why?” I hollered, irritated and guilty for how she spoke to Faith.
“Don’t you go trying to influence Allen with any of this. Your father and I will deal with you when he comes home tonight,” she continued, further infuriating me.
“Allen and Dad are fucking dead!” I screamed.
It was wrong, and the moment I yelled it out, I felt guilty. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t know what to say or do as I stood in front of her dressed in my comforter.
“D . . . Dead? Not Allen and Dale.” Her hands started to shake as she touched her face. “I have to go to the hospital.” She tried to stand, and I blocked her to sit back down.
“Mama, relax . . . Please, relax.” I relaxed my tone to try to calm her. “Allen is at school. Dad is at work too,” I continued to lie.
She took a deep breath. “Rome, what has gotten into you? Why did you say something so horrible like that about your brother and father?”
I spotted Fay standing near the stairs from the corner of my eye. She stood there with one of my shirts on while holding my phone. If the situation hadn’t been so damn fucked up, I probably would have taken her right on the steps.
“Tea, Rome . . . The caffeine bothers me,” she informed me.
It was always decaf whenever Pia gave her coffee, but she didn’t know that. “Tea, I got it.”
I pulled Faith into the kitchen with me.
“Rome, before you start apologizing, don’t,” she stopped me. “You warned me ahead of time what I was getting into.”
“Why the fuck you so perfect?” I took her face into my hands and kissed her lips, holding onto her body.
“You need to utilize those locks on the door so this doesn’t happen again,” she warned me.
I started pulling out the stuff to make Mama’s tea. “That’s the thing . . . She never comes up the fucking stairs. Since she’s been like this, she hasn’t been up there once. Pia is usually here by now.”
Fay snapped her fingers. “Your phone . . . She called you a few times. We were occupied, so you probably didn’t hear it.”
She handed me my phone, and I saw six missed calls from Pia. My heart started to race as I called her back. It rang a few times before she answered.
“Pia? Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine . . . I got into a car accident this morning on my way over there. The EMTs are on the scene. They said I blacked out a few times, so they want to keep me for observation.”
“Fuck. I’m so sorry for not answering the phone.”
Pia let out a hoarse chuckle. “Rome, don’t apologize for finally enjoying your life. The doctor wants to keep me overnight, but I should be out by morning. I can come aft—”
“You crazy? I will make sure you get picked up and taken home to rest. I can handle Mama for now.”
“No, Ro—”
“Pia, you’re like family. I can’t have you out here dying on me. Please, just rest.”
She kissed her teeth. “How about I have the agency send someone over . . . someone just as good as me? I can’t rest knowing you don’t have the help that you need.”
“Long as it isn’t you . . . I’ll accept the help.”
“Okay. I’ll make some calls while waiting for them to give me a room.” Pia sighed.
“Feel better . . . Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will. Thanks, Rome.”
I ended the call and continued to make my mother’s tea.
“Is everything all right?”
“She got into an accident this morning. It explains why Mama came looking for me.”
“How about I bring Pia some stuff up there to make her comfortable? You stay here with your mom, and we can check in with each other after I leave the hospital.”
It was usually up to me to make decisions and plans on what would happen next. Had Fay not been here, I would have been trying to figure out what to do with Mama while trying to be there for Pia too.
“Yo, I don’t know how I can even thank you, Fay.”
She walked over to me, wrapped her arms around me, and pushed her head onto my chest. “You don’t have to thank me, Rome. Take a minute and breathe . . . You can’t do it all, and you don’t have to at this moment.”
She stood on her toes and kissed me on the lips.
“Fay, I love you . . . never stopped.”
I never stopped loving Faith Stone. Even when I was angry with her, the love in my heart for her never left. With her being back in my life, that love amplified ten times more.
“Love you too.” She kissed me.
I handed Mama her tea while she was enjoying The Price Is Right. It was her favorite thing to watch in the morning. Her doctor encouraged it because it kept her mind sharp.
I really didn’t know how true that was.
After making sure Mama was settled, I headed back upstairs to find Fay pulling on her jeans. She offered a warm smile as she buttoned up the pants. Her frizzy hair was all over her head.
“What’s on your mind?”
“You.”
She blew me a kiss. “Babe, have you considered a facility for your mom? I know she means the world to you, but you’re stressed.”
I sat down on the bench in front of my bed. Faith slowly walked over to me and started rubbing my shoulders. “Out of the question, Fay. I’m not locking my mother away in one of those places.”
“Stop thinking about it like it’s a prison.”
“Is it not? She won’t have any of the comforts she has here with me.”
She placed soft kisses on my neck. “There are some nice places that can care for your mother. You can have your relationship back with her again without the burden of a caretaker.”
I jumped up from the bench. “Burden? My mama is not a burden,” I snapped.
She held her hands up in surrender. “I never said that, Rome. I just thought that maybe it would be less stress—”
“Stressful for you or me? I’m good at taking care of her needs. Did I want her busting up in my room while I was fucking? No, but we’re good.”
Fay took a deep breath. “You’re taking my words out of context. All I’m saying is that maybe it would take some stress off your back. I’m going to go up to Target and then head to the hospital for Pia.” She slipped on her sneakers and grabbed her purse.
Fuck.
I grabbed her arm on her way out. “I’m sorry, Fay. I didn’t mean to snap at you the way that I just did.”
She looked up into my eyes with tears welled in hers. “I just want to help. All I’ve ever wanted to do was help, Rome.”
I stepped back and stared at her, feeling like this was déjà vu.
“I’m sorry, baby . . . I know that . . . I know.” I hugged her tightly while kissing the top of her head.
Whenever I was stressed or angry, I tended to lash out. All she was trying to do was help me with solutions, and I scolded her and got defensive. That wasn’t fair to her, and I needed to do better.
I couldn’t push Fay away again.
I wouldn’t let myself do her the same way.
Chapter Seventeen
FAITH
I COULDN’T, IN GOOD faith, head up to the hospital without washing off all that sex on my body. As much as I wanted to run errands and head to the hospital, I needed a hot shower to rinse off all this goodness from my body. With how Rome worked me last night and this morning, this shower was very much needed.
My father and Marie were out when I returned home. The tree looked so beautiful in the living room. It brought life to a dreary and dead house. After a quick shower and change of clothes, I headed back out the door.
When I met Pia, she was so sweet to me that I wanted to do something nice for her. I grabbed a few things from Target to make her hospital stay more comfortable. While in Target, I called the restaurant and ordered her some food.
I discovered I hated hospital food when I gave birth to the girls. A fresh, hot meal from my father’s restaurant would brighten anyone’s day. It seemed like I was a chicken running with its head cut off with everything I had been doing lately. I had been moving around so quickly that I didn’t have a moment to digest the things Mrs. Atkins had said to me.
It was easy to brush it off and blame her dementia. However, she would have said those same exact things to me had she been in her right mind. She was never a fan of mine or of Rome’s and my relationship when we were teens. What mother liked their first son’s girlfriend? As an adult, it caused me to worry. I never wanted Rome to feel like he had to pick between his mother and me.
With how upset she got when she noticed it was me in bed, I didn’t want that to be a daily occurrence in their lives. What if seeing me caused her to become upset every time? That wasn’t fair to Mrs. Atkins, Pia, or Rome. I watched as Rome had to calm his mother down and how stressed he got. He was embarrassed, and I didn’t want him to feel like that. Nobody spoke about how stressful it was to care for aging parents.
It was a full-time job and could be stressful for him. His guilt wouldn’t allow him to put his mama into a facility that was better equipped to handle her condition.
I was never suggesting that she was a burden for him or me. When Rome told me about his mother, I had to decide whether to accept it or tell him it was too much. The moment we kissed, I knew I would accept it because Mrs. Atkins was a part of him.
Flights are booked. See you tomorrow. I read Ash’s text message as I killed the engine in the hospital parking lot.
This parking lot made my stomach queasy. It was the same parking lot I sat in with Rome before life as we knew it changed. I still remember the section where he parked his mom’s car before we climbed out to chase behind Mrs. Atkins.
Great, I replied and took a deep breath.
Checking my reflection in the mirror, I climbed out of the car and headed into the emergency room entrance. Pia still hadn’t been brought up to a room, so I, unfortunately, had to go into the dreaded emergency room that held so many memories I wished I could have forgotten.
I spotted Patient Information and slowly walked over toward the desk. “Hi, I’m looking for Pia Greene.”
She smiled. “Sure thing, hon . . . P . . . I . . . A, correct?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
While smacking her gum, she typed in the same and then looked up. “She’s right down that hall to the left. Triage room three.”
“Thanks so much,” I smiled and headed down the hall.
It didn’t matter what hospital it was. I hated hospitals. This particular one was at the top of my list of most hated. This hospital had taken so much from me.
I turned the hall while wishing I had a piece of gum to chomp on aggressively. An older woman walked past me and then backed up. “Faith Stone?”
I turned to face her to get a good look in her eyes. “Dr. Thompson? Oh, wow.”
I hadn’t seen Dr. Thompson since the day I stayed at her house until my father got back into town.
“Oh, my goodness. Faith, it’s been so long . . . Look at you.” She gave me that older Black lady look-over. “Jesus, time has been amazing to you.”
“You too, Dr. Thompson. It’s been so long.”
“How have you been? What has life been like for you?”
I didn’t want to get into my life story in the middle of a hospital hallway. But Dr. Thompson didn’t look like she would move until I did.
“I moved to Georgia, and I have twin girls . . . They’re eight.”
“Jesus, twin girls . . . What a blessing. Your mother would have been so proud.”
I wanted to tell her that my mother wouldn’t have been proud. She probably wouldn’t have cared if she was still alive, which is why my girls knew nothing about her.
“She would be,” I said through my teeth.
I was so thankful that I stopped wearing my wedding ring. Her beeper started to beep again. “Look, we need to catch up . . . How about we do lunch at your father’s restaurant this week?”
“Sounds good,” I lied.
Dr. Thompson was a good woman, and I was glad she was still doing God’s work as a doctor, but I didn’t want to sit down and discuss my mother. Since I’ve been here, I have been hell-bent on not giving her any more energy than she deserved.
“Here, take my card and shoot me a text or a call on what day works for you. I’m on Thursdays.”
“Sounds good . . . It was great seeing you again.”
“Likewise,” she smiled and quickly walked down the hallway to the code that had just been yelled over the loudspeaker.
I found Pia’s room and knocked before opening the door. She wasn’t there.
“Ms. Greene went down for testing a little while ago. She should be back in a few,” the nurse passing by informed me.
“Oh, thanks,” I replied, setting down the flowers and small makeshift basket I made for her.
I sat in one of the empty chairs and stared blankly at the TV screen. It made me wonder if this was how things would have gone had my mother lived. Would I have been sitting in this small room with her while she told me all the ways the accident wasn’t her fault?
Would Rome come to find me to tell me that Allen had broken his leg, but he was going to make a full recovery once it was healed? Mrs. Atkins would still give me and my mom the stink eye because she just hated my mom, and because she hated my mom, that trickled down to me.
Except . . . That was how it could have gone in a perfect world. We all know the real way that it went, and it didn’t go well for any of the parties involved.
“Here, cover yourself up . . . It’s cold tonight.” Dr. Thompson gave me her lab coat as she started her car.
